1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air-conditioning apparatus comprising an indoor unit and an outdoor unit, and more particularly to an indoor unit for an air-conditioning apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally an air conditioner which has an refrigerating cycle and which can cool and heat a room comprises an indoor unit and an outdoor unit.
The indoor unit is provided on the wall of the room and incorporates an indoor heat exchanger and an indoor fan. The outdoor unit is located outside the house and contains a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, an outdoor fan, an expansion valve and the like which constitute the refrigerating cycle.
The compressor is provided in the outdoor unit so that the persons in the room may not be bothered with the noise the compressor makes while operating. Containing the compressor, the outdoor unit is large had heavy. In some cases, the space between the house and the neighboring houses is too small to accommodate the outdoor unit. To make the outdoor unit small enough to be placed in that limited space, the compressor which is a large and heavy component may be provided in the indoor Unit, not in the outdoor unit. An indoor unit which incorporates the compressor, together with the indoor heat exchanger and the indoor fan, is known as "floor-based indoor unit." As the name implies, this type of an indoor unit is arranged on the floor of the room.
An outdoor unit used in combination with a floor-based indoor unit is small and light since it contains no compressor. Since, the outdoor unit is not heavy it can be easily hung on the outer wall of the house, with a small and simple support.
In the floor-based indoor unit, the compressor is located at the lowest position, the heat exchanger and the fan are arranged above the compressor, and an air chamber is provided at the top. In the chamber the air which has undergone heat exchange is accumulated and pressure-regulated. The pressure-regulated air is discharged from the cheer through the outlet port made in the top wall of the indoor unit.
An air conditioner comprising a floor-based indoor unit and a small and light outdoor unit has a drawback. The noise the compressor makes while operating is liable to leak from the indoor unit. While the compressor is operating, its vibration propagates to the floor, which vibrates, making a noise. The people in the room not only hear the noise but also feels the vibration. The noise appears to them larger than it really is, because of the vibrating floor.
The floor-based indoor unit may be replaced by an indoor unit of the ordinary type which is secured to the wall, and a compressor may be incorporated into the ordinary type indoor unit. In this case, the vibration of the compressor propagate via the wall to the ceiling, not to the floor. The ordinary type indoor unit has a front plate having an air inlet port and a back plate provided at the rear of the fan. The back plate has its lower portion bent toward the lower edge of the front plate, serving a part of a fan casing. An air outlet port is defined between the lower portion of the back plate and the lower edge of the front plate. In order to accommodate a compressor in the ordinary type indoor unit, a partition must be provided to define a compressor chamber, jointly with the back plate. A gap is likely to be formed between the back plate and the partition. The larger this gap, the larger the housing of the indoor unit, and the larger the amount of heat and noise leaks from the compressor to the indoor fan. This will decrease the cooling efficiency and increase the noise.
To minimize the gap between the back plate and the partition, the partition may be connected to the fan casing. In this case, the partition must be connected to the fan casing to have its vertical portion positioned flush with the back plate; the indoor fan could not otherwise apply air to the heat exchanger with high efficiency. However, it is difficult to connect the partition to the fan casing in that manner within a relatively short time.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 63-42264 discloses an air conditioner, in which the indoor unit is partitioned into a compressor chamber and a heat exchanger chamber. The compressor chamber contains the compressor, and the heat exchanger chamber contains the heat exchanger and the fan. The lower half of the compressor chamber is closed by a sound barrier plate. The upper half of the compressor chamber can be closed and opened by the front panel which has an opening communicating with the heat exchanger chamber. The noise the compressor makes while operating is likely to leak from the compressor chamber into the room through the opening of the front panel, inevitably annoying the persons in the room.